The 13-12 loss to Lodi last Saturday was stinging enough, but losing one of its prime-time players, again to injury, is making this football season for Glen Rock High School a tough one to take.

Throw in another highly questionable call by a referee, a fourth-quarter decision that deflated a Glen Rock comeback, and the season is wearing thin for the Panthers, now a 2-4 team.

Senior Pat Sheahen, one of the main thrusts of the Panther offense (slotback) and defense (linebacker), is out for the remainder of the season with a broken collarbone. The injury occurred when the team captain got hit after a catching a pass right before halftime.

"It is a four-to-six week or six-to-eight week injury," said Glen Rock head coach Jim Kurz. "Pat does everything for us, so obviously that’s a big loss."

And the Panthers’ other key injury from Saturday seems like total injustice. Junior Jeff Kopyta, who was back on the field for the first time since sustaining an Achilles heel injury in the fourth quarter of the season opener, was forced to leave the game in the first quarter when he suffered an ankle sprain. Kopyta started the game at outside linebacker, but he is also a force on offense as a wide receiver while being a backup quarterback.

"Poor kid, Jeff finally gets back from an Achilles injury, and one of the kids from Lodi fell on his ankle," Kurz said. "He barely got back, and all of a sudden he was on the sideline again with ice on his ankle and was out for the rest of the game. The poor kid had to go through false hope, thinking he was back, and then he gets injured right away again, with an injury that somehow had something to do with his past injury [Achilles]."

"Your heart breaks for these kids," Kurz continued, "but unfortunately, it’s part of the game. There are ups and downs you go through in this game, and there are ups and downs in the real world even more so. You just got to keep fighting."

"But again, no excuses; we don’t make excuses here," Kurz emphasized. "We’re playing with the guys we have."

Lodi (3-3) benefitted from blocking a punt and recovering it on the Glen Rock 21-yard line to set up its first touchdown in the opening quarter, a one-yard run at the 1:26 mark. A two-point conversion failed.

The Panthers put together an 88-yard drive toward the end of the first half to tie the Rams, highlighted by the tough running of quarterback Mike O’Neill and tailback David Sasek.

O’Neill started the march by surging for 12 yards and then throwing to Sheahen for 17. On a 3rd-and-1 from the 50, Sasek went up the middle and was stopped, but he bounced off the line and scooted right for a huge 12-yard pickup. Then, O’Neill bolted for nine yards.

The drive reached the 11-yard line on third down. O’Neill went back to pass, and as he was releasing the ball, he got hit in the arm, resulting in a high, wobbly pass that floated toward the end zone. Senior wide receiver Dan Hurley camped underneath the ball, leaped for it and caught it between two defenders for a much-needed touchdown with 29 seconds left. However, the extra-point kick was blocked, and both teams went to their locker rooms knotted at 6-6.

Glen Rock got the ball to start the second half, and O’Neill came out firing, completing three passes in a row for 38 yards, 10 to Cole Flashenberg, 15 to Eduardo Schwartz and 13 to Hurley. But the drive stalled on a 4th-and-15 from the Lodi 17, as Sasek rushed to the six, four yards short of a first down.

Lodi again benefitted from a Glen Rock punt to score its second touchdown. A short kick helped the Rams start their drive at the Panther 26. On 4th-and-goal from the one, they scored the go-ahead touchdown and kicked the extra point for a 13-6 lead with 8:30 remaining in the game.

But Glen Rock answered with a 64-yard scoring drive, engineered by the gutty play of O’Neill, who was 14-for-20 passing for 181 yards and rushed for 44 yards on 19 carries. On a 2nd-and-15 from the Glen Rock 46, he was under heavy pressure and scrambled left throwing to the 6-foot-6 Flashenberg, who fought off a defender to make the catch, good for 30 yards, at the Ram 24.

O’Neill then found Schwartz for a seven-yard toss before Scott Finan ran three yards for a first down to the 14 from where O’Neill rumbled next for 13 yards for a first down. He then scored on a one-yard keeper over left tackle with 4:44 to go. But, once again, Lodi blocked the conversion kick.

With momentum clearly on Glen Rock’s side, and with Lodi facing a 3rd-and-16 from its 39-yard line on its next series, the highly questionable call occurred. A pass was apparently intercepted by Finan at the Panther 35, but an official ruled the Lodi receiver caught it. But the end result of the play was the ball in Finan’s hands, so either the ball bounced on the ground and into Finan’s hands, which would be an incompletion, or it was an interception.

On the very next play, a Lodi runner picked up 20 yards, and the Rams proceeded to run out the clock, having reached the two-yard line.

"We asked the kids at halftime to battle and not to give up, and they came out and battled; they didn’t give up, that’s for sure," Kurz said. "Again, we could have put our heads down and felt sorry for ourselves, but, instead, our defense comes out [after Glen Rock scored to make it 13-12] and makes two nice plays [one on a tackle by Chris Kuiken for a six-yard loss to make it 3rd-and-16]."

"They [Lodi] had to earn this win; we didn’t give it to them," said Kurz. "We kept fighting; we didn’t lay down."

Kurz credited the play of his quarterback, O’Neill. "We had a nice drive to begin the second half, but we were not able to put it in," the coach said. "Michael led us down the field and hit a couple of different receivers. Michael willed his way to a couple of first downs, scrambling, using his feet, getting positive yardage. He made some stuff happen and went in for the score, but unfortunately we missed the extra point."